


Collected Works of William Blake

by Leemi



Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Angst, Gen, just something indulgent, no one communicates in this family, not beta read we die like Eva
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-10
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2021-02-24 16:01:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22200589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leemi/pseuds/Leemi
Summary: The Story follows Vergil in past and future as he struggles to find his place in the new world.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 27





	1. The Book of Urizen

_Vergil barely remembers his father’s face. Sparda was said to be the strongest of the knights of Hell, yet he barely had time for his family, always being gone somewhere else than home. Until one day he never came back. There was simply no way he was dead, after all he was the legendary Sparda, so the only possible conclusion Vergil drew was that he got bored of them and just left. Even in the young age Vergil somehow realized that, even though he never dared to entertain the thought for too long. His father was a hero to him. So there was no possibility that he would just abandon them. But there was also no possibility of him being defeated. So he spent days in inner battle with himself, his personal demons if you will._

_It didn’t take too long before they came for them. Everytime he tries to recollect any family moments it all comes down to this one. Smoke lazily raising up from the Sparda manor, fire hungrily devouring most of it. He was left alone, abandoned and hunted. Mother never came for him. And so the only thing he had left was father’s Yamato and the talisman, which he was given to him before father left for the last time. He always understood the weight that came with it. It was to protect, naturally him being the older twin, the burden was his to carry. But in order to do that he had to be strong. Stronger than anyone else._

_Strength._

_He failed them._

_His father who abandoned them. His mother who abandoned him. Dante who…_

Vergil slowly opens his eyes and groans. No, that is not right. Vergil is no more, only V and Urizen remain. A Demon and a human and his nightmares embedded deeply into his skin.

“You up already, sleeping beauty? Let’s go then, loser, we have no time to spare!” Griffon’s annoying voice floating above his head pierces his eardrums the minute he wakes up. In a certain sense it reminds him of his childhood when he was always rudely woken up by screaming of his twin brother. It made him want to sew his mouth shut back then and it makes him want to do the same to the bird now. The blade in the cane looks sharp enough to be able to do the job of a needle. But torturing the talkative familiar would serve no purpose and only weaken his already decaying body. So he reluctantly pushes the thought into deep corners of his mind and stands up with little help of his cane.

“Shut up I know.” He swats his hand at Griffon with no ill intention and Griffon playfully dodges with some remark about arms thinner than twicks. V starts to count how much would griffon feather quills cost at an antique market. 

\-------------------

V stares at the face of the boy whose arm he ripped just a few days ago. Nero, which V just now learned was his name thanks to the hospital card, is deep in a coma caused by blood loss and trauma. Unfortunate but not unpredictable turn of events.The setback in the plan will inconvenience him only a little, there is still some time left. So he sits down and waits for the boy to wake up.

It’s not like he actually has any great expectations of him. He has no reason to doubt Dante given his record, however another helping hand is always good. But the boy is only human and now without the power he possessed in his arm. Thanks to him. He feels unfamiliar painful pang in his chest where his heart probably is. Cold sweat covers back of his neck. Is deterotiation of his body faster than they expected? But the pain recedes as quickly as it emerged, so V pushes doubts deep down his thoughts as he tries to do so with every feeling of uncertainty. Urizen must be stopped and those feelings won’t help the goal at all. He can use him and that’s all that matters, but first he must recover.

His thought inadvertently trail back to the boy lying in a hospital bed in front of him. Somehow his face feels familiar in a way he can’t comprehend. And unknown phenomena always prompted him to understand it more. As Vergil he didn’t really think about it, his only concern was getting back what was his, but as V his thoughts are not as hazy with thirst for power as before so he can focus clearly on the situation. Why did Nero have Yamato in his possession in the first place? 

_Sparda family’s legacy. HIS legacy._

He grits his teeth and clutches book in his hands. Yamato was rightfully his and got literally into a hand of some mortal. Yamato was.... Yamato was… His lips curl up painfully into a bitter grimace. Right, he is a human as well now. As weak and fragile as the boy in front of him, if not even weaker since V has to rely on his old enemies to take care of the mess he himself started and to defeat Urizen so he wouldn’t disintegrate completely. He, who once dared to take on Mundus one on one, is afraid of dying. Pathetic. Alas he agonizingly aware of his own limits so he knows not to try anything stupic which would endanger this shell.

The boy suddenly groans silently from the sleep and what remains of his right arm flaps in the air weakly. The image sends another series of shivers to V’s spine. Vergil knows the pain and V knows it as well. 

_Blood dripping was down from still fresh wound on his leg, or what was left of it anyway. He wanted to scream and retch and curse and_ _run and never look back_ _. He couldn’t do any of that because the blood was pouring down even from his mouth and the pain was unbearable. It was not real. He knew it was not real. It was just a sick torture fantasy land of Mundus. But it felt so real. Especially the pain._

_He tried to move but the body stopped listening to him a long time ago and if he wasn’t tied up above the ground like a puppet, he’d be just laying there like a formeless, limbless sack of clothes._

Suddenly there is not enough air in the entire room so he stands up wobblily, walking towards a window. He struggles a bit with a latch which earns him another sarcastic remarks from Griffon which he graciously ignores until the windows finally takes mercy on him and with a silent creak it opens slowly. V takes a deep breath, perceiving how his lungs slowly fill up and then he exhales. He never appreciated how simple the procedure was. Just a simple intake of air and then just letting it out. 

Contracts with the nightmares on his skin itches.

\--------------------------------------

It takes another two days before the boys finally awakens, V almost giving up on the thought of recruiting in the process. But he wakes up eventually and so V closes his book slowly. He knows the content by heart already nonetheless he still finds it rather calming.

_To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour._

The boy sits quickly up following a careful inspection of his right hand as if hoping it was just a bad dream. V gives him some time to accommodate to the fact, after all you don’t lose one of your limbs every day. It must be still quite a shock to him. Only when his eyes register the still sitting man on a chair next to his bed he looks up and carefully stands up, using his cane again. 

Talking to him is easier than talking to Dante, where he had to be extremely careful not to slip into his old demeanor. So he just looks at him and before the boy can open his mouth to ask what the hell was he doing here, he says:

“Hello, young demon hunter, I would like to offer you a job.”


	2. The Book of Urizen: Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is a short epilogue of the first chapter, which i actually meant to post together but fucked up. well, here you go...
> 
> also, drew a quick sketch (really messy sketch, dont really have time to do anything else beside that) to accompany the chapter, you can find it here:  
> https://twitter.com/Leemilicious/status/1217067901485711366?s=20

~~_(A month later)_ ~~

The most powerful demon in this world is lying down on the ground defeated. It seems like V’s gamble on his younger brother to be able to beat him again finally bears its fruit and he can’t help but smirk slightly as he climbs up on the fallen colossus and tries to think about anything else but his disintegrating body. Urizen barely moves, he can feel it, the time has come. Then he notices a weak human walking across his chest to stand in front of him. He summons the last bits of strength he still has, raises his head weakly and with unbelievable trembling voice he asks: 

“You…”

V just chuckles mirthlessly and shakes his head. “You expected someone else? Sorry to disappoint, what you discarded as unwanted will always come hunting you down.” The irony of that sentence doesn’t escape him. Much less when they are in the exact replica of one of his nightmares. Damned fruit.

His knees buckle slightly and he has to support all his weight on the cane. How pathetic they must look right now. One is defeated by his own brother after he sacrificed his humanity to get even more powerful than him, the other is barely standing. 

“Do not struggle for if you can’t even defeat me then you’ve already lost.” Hidden meaning behind that sentence is known only to them. All he ever deemed as weak and powerless comes back beating him down. Score one for humanity.

Not much time left. He may have always thought that his twin brother was not really bright but even then he always managed to surprise him, he has to finish this before Dante realizes what is exactly happening.So he falls onto his knees because without his cane he can’t even stand and raises the blade above his head.

“While thy branches mix with mine, and our roots together join.”

He can hear Dante behind him shouting in realization and starting to sprint towards them ready to pull them apart. His son, he has to be Dante’s son which V realized on their journey. He has the same loud mouth his brother is so famous for and even the same mannerism if you look closely enough. Now he understands why he left Yamato in Nero’s safekeeping. It was to keep it in the family. Dante’s son just stands by and watches his father rushing towards them. But he is too slow V realizes with delight. He won. He tricked them all and now he doesn’t get to die. Not yet…

The blade pierces Urizen’s shell with almost no effort. Almost as if it was always meant to do that. He can hear himself screaming. Or is it Urizen? No, it’s Vergil. A bright beam of light envelops both of them and their bodies are torn apart limb by limb only to be formed anew. V feels as the contracts is physically pulled out of his skin and the familiars hastily escaping. It is better like this, no more nightmares. This is the end for V.

And a new beginning for Vergil. 


	3. The Book of Ahania (pt. 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all, sorry for the wait, had finals to deal with and stuff.
> 
> Anyway here is another chapter (yet again unbetad), this time I had to break it into two parts cause it would probably take another two weeks to finish it as there is too much to write about, so right now I'm not sure about the actual final chapters count. Hopefully it won't take too long to write the second part and the rest lol. Promise I will try to get down to edit the text in the meantime sorry I'm a mess.
> 
> also you can yell at me on twitter at @Leemilicious

~~_ (25 years ago) _ ~~

The first thing Vergil notices when he arrives to the city is that Fortuna is unbelievably quiet. The streets are not empty, quite the opposite, every corner is full of life. The people, however, keep their faces hidden behind capes and generally do not talk too loudly, if they have to speak the voice is similar to a whisper. Vergil decides he rather does not like this city and he hasn’t spent even five minutes in it. He can smell a cult miles away.

His sight falls on a big horned statue still under white covers and covered with ladders, obviously still under construction. The demon is standing upright, holding a greatsword in his hands, pointing it downwards. Vergil was looking in the stony face of his father and the corners of his mouth turned slightly up in a sneer.

“They worship a demon as their god?” That is the most ridiculous sight he ever saw in his travels. Sure enough he has heard about this The Order of the Sword and their unhealthy obsession with Sparda which was the main reason he even came to this cult infested city in the first place. Good riddance. Sure, he came here especially because he heard rumours of his father being a governor of this area at some point in the past, but never in his dreams he would imagine that the rumours were actually true and a bunch of fanatic demon hunters would worship a demon.

He inhales deeply and his hand clenches around the hilt of Yamato reflexively, fighting the urge to cut the unfinished statue in half. He feels like Sparda’s eye which is not hidden under the cover is looking at him mockingly as if daring him to cut into his own father.  _ Weakling. Can’t protect anyone, I made a mistake when I gave you Yamato. _

_ Shut up, old man. By the blood of Sparda in my veins I will show you who’s weak. _ Vergil just scoffs and promptly turns away from the statue. If there should be any clues to where was Force Edge stored it would be probably deep inside the city. He has to find more information about the area before he can even conduct a proper search. 

Judging by his previous experiences the best place to gather intel was an inn usually. He doesn’t know if this eerily silent city even has one, but it is the start so he pulls his hood deeper in his face and marches towards the main square where his father stands, overseeing everything. 

An inn is not so hard to find, as in any other cities he has been to. It is framed between two small buildings, so it would be almost unnoticeable if it wasn’t for a big black sign swinging in the wind. Siren’s Call it says. Vergil just sneers trying not to think too much about the name and pushes its door open so he can be hit immediately with unpleasant odor of hot oil mixed with a strong scent of tobacco. He grimaces slightly already regretting his decision but takes a step inside where the smell gets even worse. Oil, tobacco, cheap perfumes and stale beer are mixed in cacophony of odors making Vergil’s sensitive nose, and any other demon’s nose, basically worthless. He still doesn’t understand how Dante can stand it, maybe his demon blood is weaker than Vergil’s.

He still walks inside because he won’t be running away from anything. That is not Sparda way, not his way. The air inside is stuffy and even though inns are usually the liveliest places in the city this one still reeks of unusual quietness which envelops whole city like impregnetable fog. When he enters even the quiet murmurs drop lower and he can feel other’s eyes on him. Suddenly he felt like in those western movies his twin brother used to like to watch so much. That realization wakes him up from his stupor and he curses under his breath. This is neither the time nor the place to be reminiscing. 

He ignores the curious eyes of inn’s patrons and went to sit down to bar table and orders a cup of tea. He scans his surroundings while he waits but finds nothing out of the ordinary. People in the inn quickly forgot about him and returned to their whispered gossip. Not all of them though. There is a woman sitting few barstools away from him watching him intently. She is wearing complementary white hood which was brightly contrasted with eye-catching red dress. When the woman catches Vergil glancing at her suspiciously she just raises her glass and smirks at him. He can’t see her face clearly but he suspects she even...winks??? He coughs slightly and looks away.

But it doesn’t really work as he hears the woman’s voice next to him. “We don’t have many strangers around here. Came here to listen to His Holiness speeches?” Her voice is sultry and she is whispering as everyone else so he has to lean closer to hear he properly despite his demon heritage.

“Maybe so. It is so…...incredibly interesting.” He utters through his teeth and thanks the barman who meanwhile set a cup of freshly brewed tea in front of him.

“Are you planning to convert then?” She sits one barstool closer to him. Vergil now can distinguish her perfume over the foul odor of the inn. It smells like a lavender with jasmine.

“I came here only as a tourist. Nothing more.” He wants to get rid of her quickly but also doesn’t want to raise suspicion. So he just plays along and smiles stiffly. 

“Oh tourist?” The woman _ beams  _ at it, “I can show you around. The castle is especially beautiful.” Her voice resembled almost a purr by now, not of a satisfied cat but a tiger luring its prey into a trap.

“That’s very generous offer but-” he wants to refuse but is promptly interrupted by that woman who is now completely leaning close and whispering to his ear which makes Vergil’s hair stand up.

“I know you are a demon hunter. I believe we can help each other. You don’t really work too hard to blend in with the others.”

Vergil instantly grip the handle of Yamato weighting the consequences of cutting of her head right here and now but she already leans away as if nothing happened and just smiles again. “I am renting a flat nearby here. See you soon.” With that she finishes her drink and leaves calmly, her bright red dress once again catching the attention of the patrons.

_ Exactly who doesn’t blend in? _ Vergil scoffs and continues sipping his tea, crumpling a piece of paper she left in front of him in his fist.

\---------------------

The rented flat shows up to be just a small cramped room at the outskirts of the city. Despite its position it is actually in a good state. Windows are not leaking and plaster is mostly whole. Vergil stands outside and ponders for a while, always on the verge of knocking on the door and always letting his hand fall down instead. Why is he here in the first place? He doesn’t need anyone’s help, let alone human’s. Yet...there he is. 

It’s true that he can use her to get to the castle. After all, why not? Not everything needs to be done the hard way and having shortcuts from time to time is useful. So he clenches his fists and knocks on the door. It opens before knuckles connects with the wood. It reveals the woman with a wide grin on her face and Vergil takes few steps back giving her a scalding glare. 

“Took you long enough. What’s the matter, forgot how to knock?” She just chuckles playfully. her hood is down and blonde hair cascades down on her shoulders. “Well, come in, seeing as you finally made up your mind.” And she turns away to go back inside without even waiting for his reply. Vergil has no other choice than to follow her in with his hand on Yamato, prepared to strike at any moment.

“Who are you?” he asks the second the doors are closed. 

The woman doesn’t even turns to him, just shrugs her shoulders. “Just another demon hunter. Does it really matter?”

“It does,” he frowns. “You are not from here either. And this city is full of them so there has to be a reason you’re here.”

That finally makes her look back at him and she smirks crossing arms on her chest. “Well, well, Not just handsome but smart as well. Your parents must be proud.”

He sneers and clenches his hand around the sword “Talk.”

His cold tone doesn’t seem to work on her. She just leans on a kitchen table pouring herself a shot of vodka. “I am not your enemy here. In fact, I think we could both profit from mutual cooperation.”

“You still haven’t answered me what are you doing in Fortuna though.”

She sighs and downs the shot in one gulp. “The Order of the Sword has been acting up recently. My employer heard they have been sending their men to search for demon artifacts. They are planning something and I’m here to spy on them, but I still need to get inside the castle though. You can call me Lilith by the way, not that you asked.”

Vergil is still standing in one spot in front of the door and only now he dares to relax slightly. Obviously he can’t trust the human but since she is not from the cult she probably doesn’t present any imminent danger. “Who is your employer then. He seems to be rather well informed about practises of the Order.” He doesn’t really care but she seems to be talkative and the more she talks the more he finds out about this place.

“That I can’t say, he prefers his anonymity.” She sits on the table crossing her legs into lotus position and plays with the glass between her fingers. “All I know he pays well. That’s all it matters.”

He carefully dusts off a small chair next to her and sits down. “And why do you need my help? Are you that useless on your own?”

~~ The woman ~~ Lilith snorts. “I don’t need your help, boy. But with you it would be easier. It was just a coincidence I saw you on your way in the city, good work with the demons by the way.” She takes another shot glass and this time pours vodka for both of them. “But here I am talking only about myself and you still haven’t told me a thing.”

Vergil takes offered shot with barely concealed distaste and just lets it rest on his knee. “My being here has nothing to do with the Order itself. I merely heard some rumours about demons and came to investigate on my own.”

“Hmmmm. Aren’t you a dutiful boy.” She downs another shot. “Anyway, what say you, will you help me get inside the castle? After we are inside you can investigate on your own.”

Vergil ponders for a while, clutching hem of the glass. He doesn’t need her help. Human’s help. They are weak and pathetic. But he can use her to gain easier access to the castle, which seems to be stronghold of the order, since she clearly knows her way around. If she proves to be an obstacle he can always dispose or her in no time. Whatever abilities she has is no match for his. With that he barely suppress a smirk and nods downing his shot of vodka as well. It burns in his throat and sends shivers to his head. He despises the aftertaste. “Fine, you have a deal.”

She hops down from the table with a wide grin reaching out her hand for a handshake. “You just made me the happiest woman in this god-forsaken city. Since we are partners in crime now, do you have some name or would you prefer if I called you Mr. Mysterious?”

He smiles forcefully and stands up, shaking her hand, trying not to apply too much pressure. Habit from his youth. “.....William. You can call me William.”


End file.
